[OBSOLETE] RemindR ~ don’t miss an important event!

RemindR:
Current Version 1.0
Release: R.0.0.9
Release Date: June, 15 2017
Notes: added option to select multiple intro sounds before tts; added compatibility with Ask Alexa Message Queues

On March 18th EchoSistant Evolved was released to the public, as the only SmartThings app to use flexible Cron expressions to schedule recurring events. Shortly thereafter, the Notifications Add-on became one of the most popular features (besides making voice interactions with Alexa more natural). So much so that other developers are now starting to implement cron expressions to improve the reliability of their schedules.

In the past few months, the EchoSistant team has received several requests to make the scheduling app available to everyone, so that even people with no Alexa devices can benefit from one of the best scheduling apps on the ST platform.

After careful consideration, the EchoSistant team has decided to reshape the Notification Add-on so that it can serve users with or without Alexa devices.

Why forcing users without an Alexa device to install a custom skill in order to use the best scheduling app?

This is a thing of the past. As of today, you no longer have to! You can use the best of EchoSistant, without the hassle of installing an Amazon custom skill if you don’t need to send the notifications to an Alexa device.

Whether you need to know if someone is at your door, or when your next doctor appointment is, RemindR is there to ensure you don’t miss an important event, in the same way that Alexa is there to assist you via EchoSistant.

What is RemindR?

• A lightweight application that can deliver fast notifications to various media outlets such as TVs, mobile phones, connected speakers, Alexa devices and other mobile apps.
• A specialized application that ensures the scheduled notifications are heard

What RemindR does?

• Offers flexible scheduling with robust recurring engine using cron expressions
• Provides detailed ad-hoc reporting about the status of your home, using straightforward, real time saver - smart “&variables”
• Creates a view of the report so users can see what they built.
• Integrates seamlessly with other 3rd party apps. (Can trigger webCoRE pistons and run EchoSistant profiles)
• Uses Weather 3.0 engine to deliver versatile weather reporting for your area.
• Can trigger notifications for more than 30 events
• Can play 16 prerecorded sounds AND even your own custom mp3 sound
• Can replay (retrigger) a notification using 7 distinctive frequencies (from every minute to every 3 hours)
• Allows users to delay the first audio notification, so they can hear the welcoming messages upon arrival
• Allows users to delay a subsequent audio message, so that consecutive messages don’t get truncated

How to install RemindR?

For GitHub Integration use these credentials:

For manual install*, use the following two source code files:

Parent Smart App: click here

Child Smart App: click here

*If you need guidance on how to install a custom smart app, please read this this guide (FAQ )


What RemindR looks like?

  • Notification Outputs:


  • Retrigger Frequency:


  • Custom &variable and report preview


  • Weather Variables


  • Ad-Hoc Variables


CREDITS

This app would not be possible without the tremendous contribution from the EchoSistant team members:

@bamarayne
@WB70
@jasonrwise77

Last but not least, kudos to ST engineers for getting the scheduling right. I have been using this app for six months now, with 20 some reminders and NOT one has been missed.

HOW TO HELP

The most valuable contribution to our efforts is joining our team by providing feedback, new ideas or contributing to the development of the EchoSystem, I mean EchoSistant…

13 Likes

Which feature enhancement is most important to you?

  • Provide ways to manually cancel active re-triggers (via Alexa, apptouch or other means)
  • Enable pre-triggers (alerts before time schedules are due)
  • Automatically create virtual switches for scheduled reminders (optional)

0 voters

2 Likes

A few sample SMS notification …

Good morning event triggered by specific time every day (Custom with Weather)

Good morning! It’s now &time on &date. The sun rose at &rise and will set tonight at &set. Today, you can expect &today. Currently, the outside temperature is &current degrees.

Good Evening event triggered by a mode change (Custom with Weather)

&profile, it is now &time. Turning the outdoor lights on and locking the doors, after sunset. The outside temperature is &current degrees and the low tonight will be &low degrees. Tomorrow, the sun will rise at &rise and you can expect, &tomorrow

1 Like

Thanks for the separate apps team EchoSistant!
Quick question. Since this is a reminder app. Is it possible to have a timer check for thing like. If I lefy my fridge door open more than X minutes then remind me to close it? I know I can create a virtual switch and use CoRE and tie them to this but that’s too many layers.

I have considered this, but pushed the feature on the back burner just because SHM does a pretty good job at that kind of things. Also CoRE/webCoRE can do it easily (no virtual switches invoveld - I’d be glad to show you how, if you have it installed). With that being said, this feature is still on the road map and will certainly make it into the app sooner or later :smile:

1 Like

Thanks, I am using WebCoRE for this at the moment and I was using CoRE and SHM prior to that. Just trying to clean up some of my apps and I figure this will be a good to have all my announcement/reminder instances in this app. WebCoRE for all other automation. Not a huge fan of SHM for awhile.

1 Like

I hear you. I’ll put it in with the next update. :smile: Someone else just asked about it @jasonrwise77

2 Likes

This is awesome, thanks for this feature/app! Makes it easy to schedule reminders which could be complicated to do using CoRE.

I do not know if this is possible… it would be cool if it can integrate with a 3rd party reminder/to-do app(which of course has API). This will enable the users to enter their to-do/reminder lists thru the app and the configuration of the reminders thru RemindR.

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That would be cool, we are currently working on voice input. But definitely external 3rd party mobile app is something that would be very useful.

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Ahem Wunderlist and Evernote FTW

2 Likes

That’s awesome! That would definitely be useful as we use echo(extensively) for adding reminders and setting up timers…

Also, Integrating RemindR with IFTTTs maker channel would indirectly help accomplish the request as well? :blush:

I believe Evernote and Any.do has IFTTT

1 Like

If you are (already) using EchoSistant, you are in for a very nice surprise (soon) :smile:

@pin I think you were looking to delay notifications upon arrival, RemindR does that :smile:

Ok, been thinking about this and cannot quite get my head around it. If I set a reminder through the 3rd party app “to do something on this date, at this time” … then what would you do with that information in RemindR and when?

I’ve been building my reminders this morning…
It’s intuitive and easy to use…

I quickly built the kids barking dogs alarm clock…
Door opening notifications,
Triggered device reports and some others!

1 Like

I’ve had several request about the multiple restrictions… Doing that can eliminate several of my pistons… Lol

I wouldn’t start eliminating pistons to use RemindR. Actually, there are a lot of benefits in using RemindR with webCoRE. RemindR is a specialized app, and the intent of creating it, was to complement webCoRE in a few aspects: a faster set up for quick notifications and a few custom safe-fails to ensure the audible notifications are heard - autoadjusting volume to appropriate level, unmute the speaker if it was previously muted, attempting to eliminate the Sonos stutterring and preventing consecutive messages from being truncated.

These are just a few things that are really not in scope for an app like @ady624 's webCoRE… imho

1 Like

I agree.
I look at my ST environment like I look at my portfolio… Flexibility and versatility are key!

I use CoRE for my complex in depth automatons
I use smart lighting for anything I can make run local.

If I can break up a piston and so part of it locally, I will.

I use EchoSistant for all of my communication and feedback. I also use it, along with the native Alexa, for control.

I will use reminderR for all of my notifications and reminders!

1 Like

Thanks guys for all the work on these apps! So in your opinion, if someone comes by the thread and actually has Echo, would you recommend to not use RemindR and go straight to EchoSistant or get their feet wet using RemindR and if they like it move toward EchoSistant?

1 Like

For someone new, who doesn’t have EchoSistant installed, I would recommend the latter. If he/she would like to push messages to or receive messages from Alexa, then they would need to install Echosistant v5 (coming soon)…